


After the Honeymoon

by Fabrisse



Category: Philadelphia Story (1940)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-23
Updated: 2011-12-23
Packaged: 2017-10-27 23:03:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/301015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fabrisse/pseuds/Fabrisse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dexter and Tracy have a question for Mac.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After the Honeymoon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tacky_tramp](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tacky_tramp/gifts).



The carriage house was okay. I liked the peace and quiet most of the time, and, when I didn’t, I liked the streetcar line two blocks away. Philadelphia wasn’t New York. Hell, half the time even New York isn’t New York, but there were places to go -- and oyster stew at Bookbinder’s was a great way to spend an evening getting a feel for the city.

It’s a good city with lots of characters like the Quaker librarian or the guy who hangs out by Independence Hall and tries to give tours filled with his own version of American history. In his world, we’re all still British.

Every day, I got up, had breakfast, and, when I poured my second cup of coffee, put a fresh sheet of paper in the typewriter. I wrote a thousand words a day, and it became clear pretty quickly that this wasn’t going to be the great American novel. It might end up as the great American short story collection though. It feels good to be exercising my fiction muscles. It feels good to go for long walks and put together phrases and places and people in my head. Journalism pays the bills better, but nothing satisfies me like seeing my own characters on a blank page.

Some days those thousand words are easy, and I’m out the door before noon. This wasn’t one of those days. I was just about ready to figure out lunch, when I heard a car crunch down the driveway to the main house. I stuck my head out the window to call to the delivery man to bring it over here, when I realized it was Dexter and Tracy looking tanned and terrific and back from their honeymoon.

Tracy saw me and waved. Dexter backed up the car and took the turn off to my little spot of their property and minutes later, I had my arms full of Tracy and a back being patted by Dexter.

“We considered staying away another week, and I don’t think the servants are due back until tomorrow, but somehow, we just had to come home.” Tracy sounded exhilarated.

Dexter rolled his eyes affectionately, “That’s what she says, but I think she just missed you. And I missed you.”

I looked between them, but I didn’t see any tension. They just wanted to come home. “Well, what are we doing standing out here. I was trying to figure out lunch when you came up the drive.”

“Then we are in luck. We stopped at a vegetable stand on our way here, and there’s fresh bread and cheese and pickles too.” Tracy seemed very pleased with herself.

“Who’s on slicing duty?” I asked.

Dexter said, “I am. I learned a long time ago not to trust her with a knife.”

We all chuckled and Tracy assembled the sandwiches while I got the milk out of the icebox.

“Are you using the pool?”

I looked at Tracy over a mouthful of sandwich. “Most mornings before breakfast.” It was true. I felt like the exercise helped my work.

Her eyes lit on the stack of stories at the corner of my desk. “May I read them?”

“No. I’ll edit them the first week of next month and figure out which can be expanded, which are too long, and which might be the seeds of a novel. After that, you can have a look at them.”

Dexter said, “Well, can we at least distract you for the afternoon?”

I thought about it. “No. I write a thousand words a day, six days a week. I haven’t failed at that yet, and I don’t want distractions to take me away from it.”

Tracy looked a little put out. “Must you be so strict?”

I opened my mouth, but it was Dexter who answered her. “You of all people admire discipline. He’s told us his boundaries. Let him stick to them.” He turned to me. “When you’re done for the day, come knock on our door. I’ve found a Chinese restaurant that will deliver while we’re baching it.”

“Ginger beef is a great bribe.”

Dexter drank the last of his milk.

Tracy said, “I’m sorry I was rude. Dex is right. I do appreciate discipline. We’ll see you at dinner.”

They took their leave, and I sat down to write.

***  
“I hope you like beer with your ginger beef.” Tracy was all smiles when she opened the door. “We also have ginger ale and tea.”

I smiled back. “I think a beer sounds like a treat for a working man.”

Tracy poured it for me, and Dexter went to pay the boy when the doorbell rang.

“Are you happy, Tracy?”

“Ecstatic, Mac. I was a bad wife to Dexter before. I didn’t understand his needs and wants. Now, the ones I don’t understand, I’ll try to learn about.”

I said, “And does he understand you?”

“Better than she understands herself, sometimes,” Dexter said. He was carrying a large bag of food, and all of us scrambled around to get it unpacked and onto our plates.

Tracy handed out forks and napkins, and we sat down to supper.

“And what do you understand about her?”

Tracy changed the subject. “Where’s Liz?”

I chewed my first bite of salt and pepper shrimp slowly before answering. “According to her postcard, she’s on a boat to Rangoon. Left out of San Francisco last week.”

Tracy said, “Well.”

Dexter looked at me and asked, “Planning to join her?”

“No. She and I hashed it out before she got on the train to San Francisco. I saw us holing up in the country for a year or two while I wrote and she took domestic assignments. She saw us bashing around the world together chasing the next story.” I shook my head. “Maybe in a few years, journalism will appeal to me again. Maybe in a few years, I’ll long to go adventuring. But right now, I want to curl up and write my own stuff before I forget how.”

“I’m sure it’s yar,” Tracy said.

“Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. But I need to know before I get much older.”

“The thing is, you made Tracy more human. I think you two connect.”

I looked between them and decided it was time to chew my ginger beef for as long as I could. It was good. “All right. I connect with your wife. I think I connect with you, too, for what it’s worth.”

Dexter gave an enigmatic smile. “I hope we will, but I’ll understand if you’re not wired that way.”

I dropped my fork. “Did you just make a very subtle pass at me?”

“Well, if it caused you to drop your fork in astonishment, it couldn’t have been that subtle. I must be losing my touch.”

Tracy speared some watercress savagely. “I told Dex he should have left it to me. But yes, we’re making a pass at you. If Liz is out of the picture. If you haven’t met someone else?”

“No, Tracy, no one else. But I’m not exactly comfortable being your kept man.”

Dexter snorted. “Nonsense. Even if you hadn’t insisted on paying rent, no one would ever consider you that. You’re too independent.”

“And you’re asking...?” I looked Dexter full in the eye.

“I’m asking to share your bed, at least sometimes. With Tracy. Without Tracy. Whichever you’d be more comfortable with. Or if that’s not your cup of tea, allowing me to watch occasionally, since we’d be sharing a wife.” Dexter took a sip of his ginger ale as he continued to meet my gaze.

“I’ll be honest. I’ve never really thought about other men. I mean, I knew a couple of guys who did recipes at the magazine, but...”

Dexter’s smile was self deprecating. “At least give me a chance to broaden your horizons.”

Tracy interrupted. “I notice you’ve said nothing about me.”

I looked at her and caught my breath. “I meant everything I said to you that night by the pool. I’m more than a little in love with you.”

“Well, that’s a relief, let me tell you. I was a little worried for a moment.”

“We’ve shocked him, dear. Let’s give Mac a little time to process ‘the rich and their decadent ways.’”

I smile at him. “I always wanted to try a little decadence. Just to see if I’d like it.”

“Is tonight too soon?” he asked.

“Maybe. Or maybe once we’ve finished our supper we could all go for a swim,” I suggested.

Tracy said, “Clothing entirely optional.”

Dexter raised his eyebrows and started to clear the table. Tracy dug in the bag for the fortune cookies.

I smiled. Mine said, “Confucius says, ‘Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.’” He was a wise old bird.


End file.
